Nilay Patel

You're also the former chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.

Welcome to Decoder.

You and I were on a panel a while ago.

You were talking about rolling out AI in arbitration.

You were also talking about your history overseeing judges in Michigan, which was very funny.

I'm very excited to talk about all of that with you.

I just want to start at the very beginning.

I suspect you and I are going to end up talking a lot about commercial disputes, business disputes.

There's a lot there.

To discuss in the context of AI and arbitration, most people's experience of arbitration is like they just sign a contract.

You were the chief justice in Michigan.

You oversaw the literal legal system in that state.

Now you oversee – I think the Arbitration Association is 100 years old.

You oversee a 100-year-old dominant provider of arbitration.

Explain to people what the difference is.

It sounds like as the chief justice, you had a role like advocating for the court system with the legislature, inside the justice system.

Most people never hear about that, never think about that.

What was the split in your time?

How often did you have to spend time just saying, hey, can you pay for the courts versus actually being the chief justice?

I'm curious about that because it feels like the experience you had there really leads to your perspective on how and why AI should enter the legal system.